Tharlax

Species of long, large predators of the Beta Targos System.

The Tharlax adopted bodies quite long rather than wide in order to enter large asteroid caves more effectively and eat any prey inside the asteroids. This took a heavy toll on them though, as they must fold up their radiators otherwise they will not fit, so they can get quite hot if they remain in such asteroid caves for long. The tharlax will likely eat any Harki and their purposed organisms they come across inside the caves, so the latter is cautious to not allow them inside asteroids. Some asteroids have built large seals at their entrances for this reason. The tharlax species normally swallow prey whole after catching them, but they are not immense creatures and their stomachs will be filled after eating about 3-4 creatures of this size. 

The tharlax have evolved to have long tongues which can normally reach about 12 m away from the mouth. This allows them to catch any prey hiding in tight spaces or even around corners they would not reach before. This can often get tied around a harkas' arm. This makes them a brutal existential threat to the harki who are terrified of them. Their tongue has a lot of advanced feelers which can allow the predator to perceive the area around its tongue even around corners and not being able to see. Using other kinds of feelers on their head and down their body, they can sense vibrations in the rock which might allow them to locate moving prey within the asteroid. The tharlax are unlikely to find still prey outside of their line of sight.

The harki are in possession of their large bioships, which are far too large for the tharlax to hurt. These bioships will likely open fire on any tharlax approaching harkas homes, so as the harki knowledge of bioengineering improved the population of tharlax was reduced. As such, they instead began to eat different prey within other kinds of asteroids, which the harki do not inhabit. There might still be some rare cases of tharlax trying to enter harki homes, but this is quite rare now, and their homes are safe. Some tharlax have even been repurposed (the harki will repurpose any organism they can) into various uses, such as for wartime or even to turn them into more bioships. The tharlax themselves are also prey to various very large predators so they try not to remain in the open space for too long, instead creating homes in asteroids as well. 

Despite being a predator, the tharlax have evolved a more energy efficient type of drive flagella rather than one with a high acceleration. This makes it so they require less food to survive and the high acceleration is not needed for entering asteroids, their main source of food. They have a large number of flagella which can bend quite tightly at multiple angles to help them navigate the tight corridors within asteroids, and the flagella release this energy in a tight beam for maximum energy efficiency, but this makes their energy capacity quite low.

Tharlax reproduction rituals involve a large group of them moving into a sufficiently large asteroid. From there, they will form into couples several times each and excrete chemicals into each other. Each tharlax will then gestate large number of eggs from the DNA of all other tharlax that have reproduced with them. The eggs remain within the body of each tharlax until they hatch, where their young are born immediately after. The parents normally teach their young how to hunt as early as possible in the last few years of their life before they die. But this point, the young are still too small to threaten harki but they will hunt other smaller creatures during that time instead until they are grown to a sufficiently large size. At this point, they will have gained sexual maturity and become able to reproduce.